it is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.

Posts tagged ‘diversity’

This year’s Children’s Literature Hawaiʻi (CLH) conference was fantastic!As I mentioned in an earlier post, Graham Salisbury and Steve Jenkins were featured guests. Activities kicked off downtown at the Tenney Theatre with the Honolulu Theatre for Youth (HTY) offering dynamic performances based on Salisbury’s Calvin Coconutseries and a medley of Jenkin’s work. This was a fun event for all ages, which was followed by a lively Q & A.

During his keynote on the first day of the conference, Salisbury discussed his work and offered some words of wisdom to those of us working with young people – including the title of this post. He also encouraged us to embrace our passion and write about what we want to know. Finally, he reminded us that writing is a wonderful activity for developing understanding, whether we publish or not.

Graham Salisbury meets with students in the Books and Media for Children course

Jenkins’ keynote the second morning was beautiful, literally beautiful. He shared many creations from his books including some unpublished works, talked about visual literacy and discussed his passion for making science accessible.

Chevy is a talented storyteller who recounted Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher. In addition to his magnificent performance, which was translated into spoken English by Kevin Roddy, Chevy discussed his process of preparation including visualizing, imagining the context and characters, and learning about the author. He also talked about incorporating facial expression, body language, and signs harmoniously to make stories come alive.

The American Association of School Librarians hosted the 17th National Conference, experience, education, evolution, in Columbus, OH from November 5-8. The gathering featured many informative sessions including a keynote by Caldecott Medal-winning author Brian Selznick on the power of stories. Selznick’s newest creation, The Marvels, shows how fiction is often better at telling the truth than facts.

The IdeaLab was another fantastic event showcasing effective practices. Computer monitors were set up for presentations on tables around a large room and participants browsed topics of interest.

IdeaLab, AASL National Conference, Columbus, OH, November 5, 2015

I hosted a space at the IdeaLab on LGBTQ Inclusion @ Your Library. Several hundred librarians stopped by to discuss strategies for effective collection development, curriculum connections, programming, and special events. As with other library events, participants’ responses to the content were mixed. Most were approving of the ideas, many indicated they lacked experience with LGBTQ content, several expressed concerns about promoting access because of potential negative administrative and/or community response, and a few people said quietly, “I am glad you are here.” That was nice of them to say, but, it would be much better if they didn’t feel the need to speak quietly or if these conversations simply weren’t so problematic. All LGBTQ youth deserve school (and public) librarians who are fully prepared to support them with robust access and effective services.

the white male canon is not sufficient for theorizing the lives of marginalized people…

count the readings authored by white males and those authored by the majority of humanity. then ask yourself: are your identities and the identities of people you love reflected on these syllabi? whose perspectives and life experiences are excluded? is it really worth it to accumulate debt for such an epistemically poor education?

During the HASL talk and at other sessions with school and public librarians and LIS students, Dr. Reese shared insights aligned with the #WeNeedDiverseBooks initiative. In particular, Reese discussed the misrepresentation of American Indians in children’s literature that obscures the diversity that exists across 566 federally recognized sovereign tribal nations. Read more about these issues here.

ten thousand or so librarians recently gathered for the american library association (ALA) midwinter meeting in chicago. along with wondrous wintery weather, we enjoyed many marvelous meetings. here are a few faves:

in addition to conference sessions, there were opportunities to explore local resources. que(e)ry librarians sponsored a field trip to the leather archives and museum located in rogers park. archivist/collections librarian, Jakob VanLammeren, led us on a tour of this amazing organization, dedicated to the collection, preservation, study and interpretation of historical materials in all formats relating to the leather/levi and fetish lifestyles and communities. outstanding…!